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iTunes Ripping - Strange Digital Artifacts

I've tried a few variations on archive searches and wasn't able to find an answer to this: In ripping some of my CD's into iTunes (either Apple Lossless or WAV) I've been getting some very odd, brief digital artifacts at the end of each songs on a CD. This sounds like two or three seconds of an audio tape on fast forward. It only seems to happen on new releases (I cannot think of any older CD's it's occurred on). I just got a copy of Mary Gauthier's new album (great CD by the way) and it happened on that one. I tried ripping it multiple times in Apple Lossless, and WAV (always in iTunes) and each and every time it created files where this strange artifact existed at the end of every song. I play the CD I ripped the files from and the artifact is not there. Is this some kind of anti-piracy technology...or do I simply have some setting off in my itunes preferences (Error-Correction is on, WAV or Apple Lossless is always set to Automatic, have experimented with importing to startup disk and external disk-same results). The artifacts seem to always sound the same too...they never vary, except that they sound different from song-to-song, but the same if say, the first cut is played over again.

Anyone have any clues what this might be?

Marco
jax2
nycjdc
10 posts
 
Update...The electronic beeps, starting right channel and moving to left channel, don't exist on my IBM Thinkpad in apple lossless format, but they do on my Macbook.

I just ripped a four tracks that had the electronic beeps on my Macbook on my Thinkpad and on the Windows XP machine, the beeps aren't there.
jax2 OP
3,031 posts
 
Nycjdc - what you describe does not in any way resemble what I'm getting, but certainly could follow a similar path of investigation. Do you have "error correction" switched on? Which format are you ripping with (WAV, Lossless, AIFF)? BTW, for me, this did not start when I switched over to Leopard - I have several CD's I burned using Tiger that have the same artifacts. AFAIK all were ripped on my iBook, or so I suspect (I rarely rip on my tower). Interesting that we both have problems with ripping on Mac laptops. Thanks for posting.

Marco

PS Where can I get one of those "eternal" firewire hard drives! :-)
nycjdc
10 posts
 
I'm using iTunes and ripping in Apple Lossless mode with error correction.

I used the same setting on my Macbook as I did on my Thinkpad. The only difference (other than OS) is that I ripped to my internal drive on the Thinkpad, while on the Macbook I ripped to my eternal/external firewire drive ;*|

marco, were you able to make it to the genius bar?
jax2 OP
3,031 posts
 
marco, were you able to make it to the genius bar?

I had a not entirely satisfying visit just this evening. Though they did find a solution, they could not really explain it. It may help you and others so I'll post what was suggested as a solution. Perhaps you could try what worked and let us know if it solves your problem as well.

The girl I was speaking with suggested that the artifact was the software misinterpreting information between the cuts. It was only a theory. She had not heard of any other incidents to relay. First she suggested I rip as MP3's. I explained that wasn't an option for me. She listened to a few cuts on a CD I'd brought with, or rather the ends of the cuts and confirmed there was a problem with the rip. She went through my settings, and asked if I'd tried it with Error Correction turned off. I explained I hadn't and that I preferred to use it. She suggested attempting to rip one of the cuts with it turned off just to see how it did. We did that and no artifact was there. So her 'solution' was to either leave error-correction turned off always, or turn it off for those problem CD's that produce the artifact (I'd estimate about 5% do on my laptop). This did not explain why it was doing it, nor why my g5 tower, which is running a carbon-copied system with all the same iTunes settings, does not produce the artifact with Error-Correction turned on.

In my case I have been experiencing the problems ripping to the internal (startup drive) on the laptop, as well as to an external (USB) drive.

Marco
nycjdc
10 posts
 
I turned off error correction and the little beeps remain. So I turned it back on and re-ripped the discs. Interestingly, and somewhat disconcertingly, the little beeps have moved tracks. Don't have any idea what it is...and odd it doesn't happen on a PC (Thinkpad).
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